May 23, 2008 By Bobby Fox 3 min read

Stanley’s suitors ready to square off Back in 1992, Pittsburgh Penguin fans thought that there was no way the franchise could ever put another collection of talent together like the one that blew through the Chicago Blackhawks to the tune of a sweep in the Stanley Cup Finals. Who could blame them?

On offense, the Pens featured the best line in hockey with Kevin Stevens, Jaromir Jagr and the man himself, Mario Lemieux.

Defensively, Ulf Samuelsson was a feared enforcer and Larry Murphy was as good a scoring defenseman as there ever was. Backing them all was goalie Tom Barrasso, who may still be the best American born goalie in history.

As if that wasn’t enough, players like Ron Francis, Bob Errey, Gordie Roberts and Rick Tocchet gave them more depth than they knew what to do with.

Well, flash ahead to the team’s upcoming finals with Detroit, and this team looks eerily similar.

Crosby, Malkin, Sykora, Hossa, Malone and Staal can all be thrown into a hat with a slew of other forwards and centers and you can make up three stellar scoring lines, not to mention a shutdown checking line.

Defensively, Samuelsson has been replaced by Brooks Orpik, Hal Gill and Jarko Ruutu, while Sergei Gonchar and Kris Letang provides the team with Murphy-like scoring from the blue line.

But, a team is only as good as its goalie when it comes to the NHL and “The Flower” is blossoming in the harsh soil of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to the tune of a 1.7 goals against average and .938 save percentage.

But, as much as these Pens look like the greats of the early 1990s dynasty, their opponents certainly do not.

Detroit will be the first team in a long time that can match the Pens for firepower, especially if playoff stud Johan Franzen and his league-best 12 playoff goals can get back in the lineup after suffering what doctors called concussion-like symptoms.

Even without Franzen, the explosive Wings feature savvy vets like Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and arguably the greatest all-around defensemen ever in the NHL, Nicklas Lidstrom.

Honestly, this series is too close to call.

However, it is also one that the NHL is positively giddy over. With more stars on the ice than in the sky, the league is hoping that this is the series that could bring them back into the national consciousness.

All I can say is, make sure you don’t miss a game of it. There may not be one this good again for a long time.